Inevitable
by EntropyCSI
Summary: He used to call her beautiful. JS.


Title: Inevitable  
  
Author: Entropy  
  
Summary: He used to call her beautiful. J/S.  
  
Disclaimer: Yeah, still own nothing.  
  
A/N: First WaT fic. Thanks to A for beta-ing and being an awesome friend. Idea came from E during a random conversation. Enjoy.  
  
He used to call her beautiful - tell her that she looked amazing and that she took his breath away. They would lie intimately in each other's arms for hours. It wasn't about the affair; it was just about two people meant to be with each other coming together.  
  
Over time, the praises and compliments started to diminish. The path he chose became obvious. She was no longer first and foremost in his thoughts, and images of his young daughters took over her tall, lanky form in his mind.  
  
The bench haunted her thoughts. "It's over," he had simply stated. She couldn't help the tears that filled her eyes, but to say it didn't affect her at all was a lie.  
  
As they parted, he could feel the tremors in his hands and the harsh pounding of his heart. While it may have been over in reality, he found that his subconscious would assault him of their times together. Although he would try to replace those thoughts with his daughters, she was always there.  
  
He wanted what he didn't have. He could hear his mother's voice in his head, 'be grateful for what you have when you have it, son. You never know when things are going to change.' It was during times like these when her warnings and advice haunted him. When he was with Samantha, he thought of his family. Now that he was with his family, he only thought of her - the way her eyes shown after spending all day in bed, the way her feminine scent matched perfectly with his own, the way her smooth skin felt and tasted right before dawn appeared through the windows.  
  
The thoughts were an obsession for his mind, not only at home, but at work. The others on the team never commented, but they had figured out long ago something had taken place between Jack and Samantha. They never figured out the extent it had gone - that they had spent many nights together after long, tiresome shifts comforting each other. It was probably for the best that he and Samantha were the only ones that had to carry the burden of what happened. Their job was hard enough without worrying about personal matters.  
  
The burden was beginning to wear on her as well. Her eyes were dimmer and she began to feel lost in the world. She found that she remembered every kiss and touch they shared. She was a prisoner to her own thoughts, and he was always there at an arms length away.  
  
They continued to work together, though now, they never had the secret touches and the long gazes in each others eyes. They tried to convince themselves that it was only in the past.  
  
If he wasn't married, he would be there with her. There was no question in his mind. To him, it wasn't about infidelity or the thrill of something secret. It was about the way she lived and the pain she felt for cases that had moved him. She had put such passion into finding people that had surpassed any passion he felt with his wife, and he had originally wandered what it would feel like if that passion was directed at him.  
  
When she first began working at the field office, he used to find her at the end of the day silently shaking with moist brown eyes. He wanted to take her in his arms and soothe her, to tell her things were going to be all right, but it would be another six months before that first night they shared a hug - another five months before they would kiss in the heat of the moment, and only one extra month before they shared a bed.  
  
The first time they spent together involved their time working the case of a boy who was abducted from his house one afternoon in the city. After two weeks of searching, the young boy's body was found across the country in California. With only Samantha and him there to identify the body, emotions had been running high.  
  
Neither could remember who started the innocent kiss that led to the quick shedding of each other's clothes. That night in the hotel was just the beginning of several revelations. Rarely after that did they spend time together on assignment, but the amount of time he was, with her at her own apartment or a nice hotel room was drastically increasing. He couldn't lose the intensity he felt, until the day he broke it off. The guilt became too much when he realized he needed to be with his wife if only for the sake of his daughters. He had yet to feel any passion since then.  
  
Jack and Samantha's complacency grew until after she had been shot. He longed to visit her in the hospital, but he had to remain strong. On the other hand, when she returned to work, he finally slipped.  
  
They were walking along a busy street in the city heading to question a witness, and everything about her was distracting. Her hair was curly, framing her face, and he had to hold himself back from feeling its softness. The determination in her face was nothing new, but combined with the small hitch in her step, he knew she was trying to be independent, even though she had only gotten out of the hospital a couple weeks before.  
  
Her frustration level grew the longer they walked; that's when he broke one of the rules. "You look absolutely beautiful."  
  
"Jack, we're in public," she hissed quietly. Her eyes searched the crowd, but no one had taken notice of them or of their conversation. Her eyes once again returned to him, but held a softer gaze, and with that she sent him a silent look of thanks.  
  
Without any more words spoken, they continued on as if nothing had happened, but Jack knew that eventually it would get to be too much. They would find themselves where they were originally, enjoying each other's embrace. He didn't know whether he was anticipating or dreading that day, but that didn't matter since they both knew it was inevitable, and it was only a matter of waiting. 


End file.
